


Do you even bake

by Rainbugi



Category: VICTON (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Office, Fluff, Idiots in Love, Kang Seungsik is Whipped, M/M, baking disasters, its just fluff, mild? pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:40:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27986313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rainbugi/pseuds/Rainbugi
Summary: Subin is new at the office and he tries to impress everyone by telling them he can bake cookies for the upcoming office party. Seungsik falls for his charms and is dragged into his baking endeavours, but he can't bake either. Chaos ensues.
Relationships: Jung Subin & Kang Seungsik, Jung Subin/Kang Seungsik
Comments: 13
Kudos: 30
Collections: VICFEST®—round two!





	Do you even bake

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt 070: Person A volunteers to bring cookies to their office party, but they can’t really bake. Person B offers to help, but they’re just as hopeless in the kitchen.
> 
> Everyone is there, ot7 office workers, because I thought it was fun hehe
> 
> I have no idea what happened here but it's a Long boi :) I really wanted to write for this tag because it doesn't have many fics and I thought this prompt was simply perfect \o/ I hope you enjoy reading <33

“Office party?” Seungsik squints at one of his subordinates as he hands him a file. “What makes you think that’s a good idea in the middle of holiday chaos?” They’re already covered head to toe in work, he can’t afford having a hangover on any day of the week. Maybe his subordinates can because they actually take the weekends off.

“That’s exactly why we need one! All of us need some relaxation, especially you. I know you don’t take the weekends off like you’re supposed to.” Sejun, the subordinate in question, scowls at him. “Do you want me to go tell mister Han that you’ve been ignoring his orders?”

Seungsik snorts. “You can go tell Seungwoo all you want. What’s he gonna do? He’s worse than I am.”

Sejun chuckles and whacks at his arm. “Still, you really should take a bit of time to relax. Pretty please? I promise we’ll go easy on the alcohol.”

Seungsik rolls his eyes and sighs. A promise like that can only be broken if it’s made by Sejun. Or any of his other subordinates for that matter. But he has to admit it sounds like fun. He considers his subordinates more as his friends than anything else. They work well as a team and any party they go to together is full of fun and laughter, so he can’t imagine this being a bad idea. “Fine, I’ll allow it. But not too much alcohol.”

Sejun cheers and pulls him into a hug before running out into the office to tell the others. Seungsik watches through the glass in his office door, amused at the sight of his friends jumping around like a bunch of excited children. Even the newest addition to their team, who at first seemed so shy, finds himself caught up in the buzz of excitement. Seungsik watches fondly, glad he feels more at ease now. Perhaps this party really isn’t such a bad idea.

He gets back to work and after a while everything quiets down again in the office. A few hours later a soft knock on his door startles him out of his concentration. He looks up from his laptop and spots Sejun at the door again. He nods for him to come in.

“Hey! We decided to all bring something to the office party so it wouldn’t be too expensive for one single person. Think of something you want to bring and tell me so I can make sure nobody is bringing doubles.” He says cheerfully as he walks in with a coffee in his hands.

“You expect me to trust you with organizing this?” Seungsik raises an eyebrow, more at the coffee than at Sejun, because damn that smells good.

“I’m offended.” Sejun huffs and tilts his chin up, before dramatically (or what Seungsik assumes should be dramatically, because it’s more clumsy than anything else) heaves himself onto Seungsik’s desk. “I was so kind to even bring you coffee.” He sets the coffee on the desk in front of Seungsik, who looks up at him confused.

“You’re not taking it back?” He asks sceptically. This is nothing like Sejun.

“Normally I would, but I haven’t seen you drink anything at all today and I’m honestly getting a little worried. You’re not even scolding me for sitting on your desk.” Sejun scowls as he plonks a water bottle that had gone unnoticed by Seungsik on his desk.

“Thanks. Sorry I got carried away again.” Seungsik says sheepishly. He decides he’s probably better off first having a bit of water to combat the dry throat he didn’t realize he had, so he opens the bottle and takes a few sips.

“Much better.” Sejun says happily and he hops off the desk. “The office party is next weekend so be sure to tell me or Chan what you’re bringing!”

“I trust Chan even less!” Seungsik yells after him as the door closes.He drops his head into his hands and lets out a tired chuckle. What a mess this is going to be.

Even once everyone has gone home for the day Seungsik still sits in his office, typing away at his laptop like there’s no tomorrow. He still has a few reports to get through, and then he needs to email a bunch of people, but after that he’s free. He doesn’t notice the door to the office opening, not until someone next to him clears their throat as they hang over his shoulder. He jumps and nearly reflexively slams his laptop shut as if he was caught watching porn.

“Go home.” A stern voice says in his ear and he looks up to see Seungwoo, the head of their department, hovering over him.

“You could stand to be less sneaky.” Seungsik huffs as he desperately tries to get his heart to beat again. “You scared the living daylights out of me.”

“It’s the only way to effectively break your concentration.” Seungsik says, chipper now. “If I announce my presence like normal you just shut me out.”

Seungsik gapes at him for a moment before realizing that he is right. “Right. Sorry. It’s been hectic lately.”

“I know, everyone and their mom wants Christmas ads for their company. Did you know Seungyoun’s team got assigned the Christmas ad for our own company?” Seungsik chuckles at the thought and then frowns.

“You mean _you_ assigned them the Christmas ad for our company.” He asks, suspicious.

Seungwoo laughs and pats his shoulder .“Glad to see you’re still as sharp as ever. Now go home and get some rest so you don’t lose that.”

“Says you.” Seungsik grumbles. “I just have a few emails to send after I finish this report. I won’t be too much longer.”

“If you’re not out of here within an hour I will personally drag you out.” Seungwoo says sternly before making his way to the door.

“I will be out of here within an hour and I will personally drag you along.” Seungsik fires back and Seungwoo leaves laughing.

It feels a little too routine, lately, having Seungwoo try and get him out of the office. Vice versa as well. If Seungsik is done on time he usually stops by Seungwoo’s office with the same threats, most often refusing to leave until the older has wrapped up and left as well. And then he makes his rounds through the office to scare any other employees out.

He expects it from his fellow managers, and from Seungwoo, because they bear the most responsibilities in the department, but very occasionally he finds one of the regular employees still on the floor this far after hours, and then he has a manager to chew out.

When he finally leaves, right before the hour is over, he finds the floor completely deserted. Even Seungwoo has already left. Apparently it’s up to him to close up for the night. He makes sure all the lights are off, before closing the doors and pressing in the code to lock up. It feels a bit eerie to walk through the halls this late, when everyone is already home.

The elevator isn’t fully empty, thankfully. He leaves the building with a few of the telemarketing guys, who drag him into a heated conversation about the best restaurants in the area. Once he finally gets home he quickly heats up some leftovers and then gets ready for bed at a speed he didn’t think possible in his current state. He sighs happily when he is finally encased in a warm cocoon of blankets. Who needs a weekend when you can relax like this?

Seungsik does. He needs a weekend. He realizes this when he wakes up from his alarm and immediately wants to sink back into the blankets. Tiredness threatens to overtake him. _Curse the holiday season_ he thinks as he forces himself to get up and get ready. _Thank God it’s Friday._ He thinks. And then _oh no it’s friday._ He should’ve already been on his way to work for his first meeting of the day.

He curses himself and shoves a sandwich into his mouth while attempting to stick both his legs and arms into his suit at the same time. After a bit of a struggle he is properly suited up and he hastily makes his way down the stairs and to his car. He hopes fervently Seungwoo won’t be too upset. He sticks to the traffic rules, not one to risk other people’s lives even if his own is at stake.

Once he gets to the building he parks as neatly as possible, so as to not inconvenience anyone else, and then sprints into the building, taking the stairs two steps at a time. He doesn’t realize the building is awfully quiet for a very long time. Not until he is at his floor and he runs straight into the doors, that are still closed and locked. He frowns and punches in the code.

The offices are completely deserted, even Seungwoo’s doesn’t show a sign of the man having already arrived at the office. The stack of papers meant for the meeting is still laying on the desk. And then he realizes why. The clock on the wall above Seungwoo’s desk shows him he’s nearly an hour early. Apparently he did set his alarm correctly. He groans and slumps into Seungwoo’s desk chair. 

He’s lucky he makes his lunch the night before, or he wouldn’t even have that, but he doesn’t feel lucky at all. Clearly he needed the weekend more than he had imagined. He nearly sinks back into sleep, exhausted from the running, when a soft knock pulls him from his thoughts. He looks up to see an amused Seungwoo stand in his own doorway.

“May I come in, sir?” He teasingly asks, already stepping into the office.

Seungsik sighs and hangs his head, before getting up. “Good morning.”

“Looks like you didn’t have one. What brings you here so early?” Seungwoo picks up the pile of papers and gestures for him to follow along.

Seungsik explains his morning panic and laughs along with Seungwoo, because it is kind of funny, now that he’s had a bit of time to wake up properly. The meeting goes without a hitch, to his surprise, though he gets the impression Seungwoo tries his best to keep the attention off him. He relaxes a bit once he’s finally safely behind his own desk again, with a warm cup of coffee in front of him. It’s going to be a long day.

Not long after he thinks this, he hears a soft knock at the door. When no one enters after he does his vague hand gesture in their general direction, Seungsik looks up, confused. Then he spots the new hire, Subin, standing a bit unsure with his hand on the doorknob. He throws him a warm smile and the boy visibly relaxes. He opens the door and steps in with a newfound confidence that Seungsik hadn’t expected of him.

To be honest, they’ve had very little interactions so far. Of course Seungsik had been the one to show him around the office, and he had told him to come to him with any questions, but after that they had only really seen each other through a glass door. Subin had come in during the busiest period, so Seungsik had had very little time to help him adjust. He feels a bit bad about it, but by the looks of it Subin is doing well enough with his fellow coworkers as guidance.

“Hey, Subin. What can I do for you?” He tries to sound nonchalant, but it comes off far too formal. He doesn’t want to scare the boy off by being too casual, but now he just sounds stiff. 

Luckily that doesn’t seem to matter for Subin, who throws him a small smile and then looks down as he launches into his story. “So… The office party next week.” He starts off hesitant and Seungsik hums in encouragement. “We’re all supposed to bring something and, well, I sort of offered to bake cookies.”

Seungsik smiles kindly, albeit a bit confused. Why is he telling him this? “That sounds lovely Subin.”

“Well, it would be. If I had any idea how to bake.” The younger admits a bit sheepishly and Seungsik has to suppress a laugh.

“Why did you offer if you don’t know how to bake?” He asks, more amused than accusing.

“It sounded fun! I even looked up the recipe and everything.” Subin looks up at him and the enthusiasm is very evident in his eyes. “But then I realized I cannot possibly do this on my own.” He looks so devastated it pulls at Seungsik’s heartstrings a bit too much.

“I’ll help.” He blurts out, before he can stop himself. He would like to blame it on that morning's fiasco and the long week he’s had, but really, it appears he has a soft spot for the new hire.

“Really?” Subin’s face lights up and he quickly pulls out his phone, handing it to Seungsik. “This is the recipe I had in mind. I’ll of course buy all the ingredients and stuff. What do you think?”

Seungsik stares at the words on the little screen, attempting to decipher what half of these things even mean. It doesn’t look too difficult, from the small part of instructions he can see, so as long as Subin handles buying the ingredients they should be okay. He’s sure he can figure out what ‘cream the butter’ means, somehow. “It looks fine. Send me the recipe too, so I can have a look.”

Subin nods enthusiastically, a bright smile on his face. Seungsik knows he could never say no to that smile, no matter what he asked. He senses a subtle shift in the power hierarchy and he wonders if the others are just as enchanted as he is. Has Subin been in charge while Seungsik was too busy? “I’m guessing we can only bake this weekend, which is a shame, because these are way better fresh, supposedly.”

“We could bake the evening beforehand.” Seungsik hears himself say. Really, what has gotten into him?

“Really? But won’t it be too late for you? I’m sure you’d be exhausted on a Thursday. It’s very busy during these times isn’t it?” And, dear God, he has the audacity to look _concerned_. Seungsik feels his heart flip in his chest and he isn’t sure what that is supposed to mean.

“Well, yeah, I suppose you’re right.” Seungsik mumbles. “Perhaps the weekend is better.”

“It’s alright, we can always bake more for a different party!” Subin jumps up and inclines his head politely. “I’d better get back to work. Sorry for interrupting you.”

“That’s alright, you should come to me if you need something.” Seungsik smiles at how kind and polite he is. True, his smile holds a power Seungsik had not foreseen, but he seems to be unaware of this. If anything, he’s just a very kindhearted man who happened to come to Seungsik for some help.

Subin throws him an even brighter smile and he heads out the door. Seungsik finds himself momentarily dazed, staring at the empty spot on the chair in front of him, before he shakes himself and goes back to work. A little while later an email pops up on his screen from Subin, asking him if Sunday is fine, since he has some shopping left to do. Attached is an address and a link to the recipe.

He quickly sends a reply back to tell him Sunday works just fine for him. It’s not like he would actually be doing anything anyway, so really, what is he losing? His sanity? He doesn’t dare answer that. He opens the link to quickly scan the recipe. It doesn’t look impossible. There’s a few pictures of the finished cookies, and they look tasty enough. He quickly loses that positivity when he actually reads the recipe. What in the world does ‘cream the butter’ mean? He decides he should figure it out tomorrow. He can sacrifice a Saturday for some baking research.

He buries himself in work the rest of the day, until finally he has everything done for the weekend. He looks up to see that nobody has left the office yet, though clearly everyone is busy packing up for the day. Surprisingly he’s early for once. He debates on whether to stay behind and see if Seungwoo doesn’t overdo it again before the weekend, but then he decides that after the fiasco this morning he can be selfish for once.

He packs up in time to head out with the rest and they all excitedly chatter about their plans for the weekend. Hanse comments that he’s glad to see Seungsik leave early for once again and the rest of them agree solemnly. Sejun and Subin get into a heated discussion about something that sounds vaguely like nail polish, while Chan and Hanse attempt to bully Byungchan into answering a question Seungsik didn’t catch. He’s not sure he wants to know.

He looks around his friends and feels a surge of happiness. The only one missing is Seungwoo, and that reminds him of something. “Hey Sejun!”

The man in question whips his head around dramatically. “Yeeesss?”

Seungsik tries to ignore the way Subin chuckles in favour of losing his train of thought. “Did you invite Seungwoo to the office party as well?”

“Yeah, but he said he’s too busy. I’m still trying to convince him to join.” Sejun shrugs .

“Dude, leave the man be for once.” Hanse fakes a kick in Sejun’s direction, who squeals and hides behind a very amused Subin.

“He’ll come if he has the time, I know him. Not one to turn down an opportunity to get wasted.” Chan says wisely and they all giggle.

“That’s true.” Seungsik admits.

They reach the parking lot amidst friendly banter and part ways. Seungsik is extremely happy he has a team that’s as close-knit as his. He knows he doesn’t fit the standard image of manager, but he gets everyone to do what they need to do in a timely manner, and to him that’s all that matters. He’s learned it mostly from Seungwoo, who used to be their manager before they both got promoted.

Once he gets himself home, he’s surprised to learn he has the time and energy to cook himself a decent meal, and so he does. He eats it while watching some random shows on tv, when he suddenly stumbles upon a baking channel. Ah, that can be useful.

He spends the rest of the night getting thoroughly confused at the things the professional bakers are yelling, and by the end of it he still has no idea how to bake cookies, because none of them actually did, and he has a headache. He turns off the tv and decides to take a nice, long, hot shower before crawling into bed.

The next day he wakes up far later than he planned, but he feels well rested, so he takes it as a win. He doesn’t bother changing out of his pyjamas as he plans to spend the day indoors. After a hearty brunch he flops down on his couch with his laptop. He knows he shouldn’t, but he opens his work mail, just to make sure everything is in order. So he can relax the rest of the weekend.

After a few back and forth emails with Seungwoo about one of their projects, that they could’ve easily done through messages, he finally settles and opens up a few new tabs to begin his research. He opens up the recipe page and scrolls past the list of ingredients. That’s Subin’s responsibility, he figures. The first sentence is immediately confusing. It talks about a bowl of a stand mixer.

Seungsik quickly looks up what a stand mixer is, and then chokes at the pricing on the items he finds. He wonders if Subin would ever be able to afford one. As he reads up on them he quickly realizes that they’re just fancier and more practical versions of hand mixers, which have a much more reasonable price. He hopes Subin has one of those.

He himself only has a whisk, which came with the set of cutlery and cooking tools he bought. He occasionally uses it to beat up eggs for omelettes, so he knows how tiring the process can be. It would certainly require a lot more work than using a mixer. He sighs and moves on to the next part. The creaming of the butter.

He spends the rest of the afternoon looking up various terms and taking notes on what to do and what to look out for. It’s quite interesting, and he finds himself actually having fun. He’s not sure if he can apply any of it in real life, but it’s nice to learn a new skill from time to time, even if he ends up being bad at it.

Once he’s done taking all the notes he stuffs the notepad safely into his pocket so he can look at it a few times that day. He wants to try and memorize it so he doesn’t have to look at a notepad while baking, because not only would that put his dear notepad at high risk of getting ruined, it would also look a bit silly. He ends up feeling like he’s rehearsing for a play, but at least he can impress Subin (though why he wants to is beyond him).

After dinner he turns on the tv for some happy hours, but he finds himself waking up from a half-nap a few hours later. Apparently he’s more tired than he expected. He decides to simply call it a night. He crawls into bed after a nice warm shower and drifts into a peaceful sleep. Well rested, and in a good mood, he gets up and puts on some nice, casual wear, before realizing it’s better to wear something he doesn’t mind getting dirty. He quickly changes and puts something that resembles egg on toast together for breakfast (he hopes fervently he does better at baking), before heading out.

Since Subin doesn’t live too far from his place, he decided to head out early and walk the way. It’s a half an hour walk that runs along the river side, and he really loves the scenery, so it’s a perfect way to start his Sunday. He doesn’t meet many people along the way, which makes it all the better. The river is calm, and he feels himself relax as he breathes in the chilly winter air.

Once he gets there, he double checks that he has the right address before he presses the doorbell to Subin’s apartment. The beep sounds, signaling the door opened, so he lets himself in and heads up to the corresponding floor. Subin is already waiting in front of his apartment and he waves enthusiastically once he spots Seungsik, who feels his heart leap into his throat. He waves back and walks a bit faster to not have Subin wait too long.

Subin quickly shows him into the apartment. “It’s not much, but it’s home.” He says with a soft smile and Seungsik can tell what he means.

The apartment isn’t big, but it’s filled with personal items and decorations that he supposes Subin loves. The walls are hung with photographs and art, in a seemingly random order, and everywhere you look little plants and cute figurines pop up their heads. “It’s lovely.” Seungsik says truthfully.

“Thank you.” A soft blush appears on Subin’s cheeks and Seungsik wants to poke them. “Would you like something to drink?” He steps into the kitchen area and that’s when Seungsik notices the neatly organized baking equipment Subin has stalled out already.

“Ah you’re fully prepared I see.” He says brightly.

“Oh I just got out whatever my parents gave me when I moved out. I’ve never actually used any of these.” Subin admits. “But I checked and it should be all we need.”

Seungsik nods absently, far too focused on how Subin is playing with his sleeves and how cute he looks while doing it.

“Do you like iced tea?” He rummages around in his cupboards in search of some glasses.

“Yeah, iced tea is fine.” Seungsik doesn’t know why his voice comes out 3 octaves too high.

Subin pours them both a glass and hands Seungsik his, before rummaging through his cupboards and fridge. Only once he has already stalled everything out, does Seungsik realize he’s getting out the ingredients. “You want to start right away?” He asks tentatively. He’d rather stall a bit, since he’s still not very confident in his baking skills. Then again maybe it would be best to get it over with. Like ripping off a bandaid.

“I figured that would be best, since i read in the recipe that the dough has to be in the freezer for an hour.” Subin shrugs. “Unless you’d rather sit for a bit of course. There’s no real rush. I just didn’t want to take up too much of your time.”

 _Ah he was being thoughtful_. Seungsik’s heart melts a little. “That’s fine, let’s take it easy, it’s a Sunday after all.” Subin breaks into a big smile and Seungsik chokes a little. He wishes he was drinking iced tea just to have an excuse for the excessive coughing. Subin runs over and pats his back which only just makes it worse.

“Well, in that case, have a seat.” He says softly, once Seungsik finally calms down.

“Yeah, thanks.” He smiles and then hurries over to the couch Subin is gesturing at, before he can think too much about how close they were. What is wrong with him?

Subin puts the eggs and butter back into the fridge before refilling both their glasses, and then comes to sit with him. Seungsik’s brain scurries around for something to talk about, but then he realizes the only thing he knows they have in common is their work, and he really doesn’t want to talk about that on their day off.

“How has your weekend been so far?” Subin asks and Seungsik flushes a bit, looking down at his drink guiltily. He doesn’t want to admit that he spent the previous day rehearsing his baking notes as if he was going to audition for a role in a drama.

“It’s been nice. I fell asleep while watching tv yesterday, so you can tell how productive that has been.” Subin giggles a little.

“To be fair I haven’t done anything but watch tv either. Except for the shopping of course.” He gestures toward the pile of ingredients still on the counter. “I’ve been really into a drama lately, I can’t really watch during the week so I rewatch all the episodes of the week on Saturdays.

“Oh?” That could be something they have in common. “Which one?”

As it turns out it is the same one Seungsik has been watching, and they happily chat away about their favourite characters and parts. Every time Subin laughs Seungsik feels his heart skip a beat, but he tries to not look into it too much. Once they’re done talking about their thoughts on the latest episode of the drama, Seungsik looks over to the clock and notices they’ve already been talking for over an hour.

“We should probably start baking now.” He smiles at the comical O Subin’s lips make when he sees the time.

“Oh dear yes we should.” Subin hastily gets up and brings their cups to the sink, Seungsik following suit.

He quickly looks over all the equipment as Subin gets the eggs and butter back out of the fridge. He’s relieved to be able to say that he recognizes everything, and even knows all the correct names. At least his last braincell didn’t leave him. In his head he quickly runs over all his notes, and it seems he still remembers those as well.

“Do you have any idea what that means?” Subin shakes him from his thoughts and he looks up with a hum. “It says to cream the butter. What does that mean?”

“Ah let’s first get all the measurements right. Then I can show you how to do it.” Seungsik smiles reassuringly, both to settle Subin’s worries and his own. He wrote down how to cream the butter, but it’s something else to actually do it.

“Right, smart.” Subin giggles. “I was almost going to put the entire thing in. It’s a good thing I got you here.”

Seungsik laughs at that and relaxes a little. “You really were? Oh dear those would have been some buttery cookies.”

Subin whacks at his arm and moves over to wash his hands before placing a bowl on the little kitchen scale. “How much did it say we need?” He asks as he grabs a knife and the butter.

“One cup of unsalted butter.” Seungsik answers, scrolling through the list of ingredients.

“Unsalted? Oh, I bought salted.” Subin holds up the pack of butter. “Do you think it matters?”

“Well it says here we also need a pinch of salt, so if we just leave that out it should be fine.” Seungsik says, hoping he’s right.

“How much is a cup in grams?” Subin asks with a soft frown, after pressing a few buttons on his scale. “This thing doesn’t measure in cups.”

“Ah I guess for cups you’d need an actual cup.” Seungsik offers. He didn’t look up anything about measurements, because he figured Subin had those down. Apparently he was wrong.

“A cup like this?” Subin holds up one of his mugs. It’s a tall mug with a little cat face drawn on the side, and cat ears sticking out at the top.

“I suppose that could do.” Seungsik says, unsure. He has no idea how much a cup would be, or how to measure one. He’s also a little distracted by how cute Subin’s mug is and how fitting it is for Subin to have such a cute mug, but that’s neither here nor there.

Subin gives him a thumbs up and starts scooping butter into the mug. Seungsik looks over the ingredients list again and notices that a whole lot of other ingredients ask for cups. “Do you have any more mugs?” He asks.

“Up there.” Subin points at one of his cupboards and Seungsik opens it to find a whole array of different shapes and sizes mugs, each of them cuter than the other. He loses himself for a bit looking at them. There’s even one with little peaches on it and he kind of wants to shove it into his pockets to take home. Of course, he doesn’t, but he wants to.

Subin comes to stand next to him, shaking him from his thoughts. “I’m not sure if any of these are the same size as that one.” Seungsik says.

“Maybe we should use this one for all of the ingredients? We can just measure and wash as we go.” Subin offers. It’s not a bad idea, Seungsik thinks.

“Yeah that sounds good.”

“Okay, well then you cream this butter and I’ll wash the cup.” Subin says before swiftly spooning the butter into a large bowl.

Right, the creaming of the butter, of course. Seungsik definitely didn’t forget about that. He squints at the butter in the bowl, before grabbing the mixer and the whisks and assembling the device. He sticks the mixer in the bowl and carefully slides the button to the first stripe. Nothing happens. He quickly glances over to Subin and lets out a relieved breath when he sees he’s still focused on washing the cup, instead of on him fumbling around with the machine.

He frowns, focusing back on the mixer and the butter, and shoves the button back and forth, wiggling the thing, before letting out a frustrated huff and lifting the mixer back out. Then he hears a choked giggle from next to him and he looks over at Subin again, who is holding the wire that’s supposed to connect the mixer to an outlet. It isn’t.

Seungsik wants to sink into the floor, but then Subin bursts out into laughter and he can’t help but laugh along. He likes to think it’s because it’s actually funny, but of course it’s because Subin’s laugh is just that infectious. “You’re kind of supposed to plug these in.” Subin says cheekily as he does just that, and the mixer whirrs to life. Seungsik quickly turns it off, pretending he didn’t just jump a meter high.

“Yeah, thanks.” He mumbles and puts the mixer back into the bowl. This time it does start spinning once he slides the button. The butter spins wildly in the bowl, shaking it and Seungsik quickly uses one hand to steady it before he flings the butter and the bowl across the kitchen.

At first it looks like not much is happening, but after a bit the butter does start to change shape a bit. It doesn’t really look like cream, more like smaller clumps of butter. He has no idea how long he is supposed to be doing this, but he kind of knows what it’s supposed to look like. Once the butter sort of resembles a light, creamy colour, Seungsik turns the mixer off. It still looks a bit clumpy, but maybe the rest of the ingredients will fix that.

Subin looks over at the bowl and nods approvingly, as if he knows what it’s supposed to look like. Seungsik swats him away before he can dip a finger into the butter. “Don’t eat it, it's just butter.”

“But it looks tasty.” Subin pouts. Seungsik knows better than to give in.

“It’s not. And you can’t taste it before it’s baked, that’s dangerous.” He scolds and Subin deflates even further. “But nobody would notice if we tasted some of the cookies.”

At this, Subin perks back up and he goes back to reading the recipe. Seungsik feels himself melt even further, as if that’s supposed to be possible. “Ok, it says here you need to add the sugars and the salt. I didn’t really know the difference between the sugars, so I just got regular sugar. I’m sure that’s fine, right?”

“Of course.” Seungsik says, while he tries to remember if he ever read something about different types of sugar. He figures it doesn’t matter, since Subin only has one kind anyway.

“Okay, and we won’t add the salt so we just need ¾ of a cup of sugar.” He grabs the sugar and pours it into the mug until it seems to be about three quarters of the way full. “Here you go.”

“Thanks.” Seungsik grabs the mug from him and pours the sugar into his sort-of creamed butter.

“Now beat it for a minute.” Subin reads aloud.

“Ah, let me know when a minute has passed then.” Seungsik says before turning the mixer back on and mixing the sugar in with the butter. After a while Subin signals him it’s been a minute and he stops beating the mixture. It still looks very clumpy. He’s starting to get worried.

“What’s wrong?” Subin asks and he comes over to check the bowl again. “You’re frowning at the butter.”

“Oh, nothing.” Seungsik quickly says. “It looks fine.”

Subin squints at him suspiciously, but returns to his measuring station and he reads the rest of the recipe. They waste several eggs attempting to get just the egg yolks, because Seungsik didn’t know that was a requirement either, but eventually they get there. He just hopes Subin doesn’t suspect anything yet. He knows Subin is smarter than that, though.

They add the egg yolks and beat for a few minutes again, and then Seungsik expertly shows Subin how to scrape a bowl properly, all the while becoming more and more concerned about the texture of their mixture. It now just resembles eggs with clumps of butter. He’s pretty sure the two are supposed to mix.

Subin slowly pours in the flour, while Seungsik continues to mix, interrupted by both of them coughing their lungs out as the flour flies everywhere, because he forgot to lower the speed of the mixer. Once they’re both sufficiently covered in flour and all the flour that did end up in the bowl has mixed in with the rest, Seungsik stops mixing.

“It says to knead the dough into a ball.” Subin reads and Seungsik attempts to get the dough out of the bowl.

Attempts, because as he does so it kind of starts falling apart. At first it’s not so bad, but the higher he lifts it the more pieces fall off, until all he’s holding are two handfuls of dough that feels more like powder, while the rest of it is partially in the bowl and outside of it. Well then. He looks over to Subin, who is looking back at him with a mix of horror and amusement.

“I’m pretty sure that wasn’t meant to happen.” He comments. Seungsik nods, a bit dazed and Subin breaks put into laughter.

“What’s so funny.” Seungsik looks back at their failed baking experiment, and then at Subin.

“Your expression.” Subin manages in between wheezing. “You should see your face!”

Seungsik shrugs and drops the two balls of dough back into the bowl with a pout. “This is awful.”

Subin stands next to him once he’s done laughing, and pokes at the dough with a finger. “It’s a bit dry.”

Seungsik chuckles. “A bit? It’s basically just flour at this point.”

“No, there's some butter there. Look.” Subin points at a small clump of butter in the corner of one hump of sadness.

“Oh, yay, a mouthful of butter.” Seungsik says sarcastically and Subin cackles again.

“Is it salvageable, oh great baker?” He teases and Seungsik huffs.

“Hey I never said I was any good at baking.” He says indignantly.

“That’s true. But why would you offer if you don’t know how to bake?” Subin answers cheekily, repeating what Seungsik had said before. He opens his mouth, but closes it again, unable to come up with a counterpoint.

“I’m sorry.” He says eventually, looking down in defeat. “I didn’t mean to ruin your cookies.”

Subin laughs and places his hand under his chin, gently forcing him to look back up. “It’s fine, it’s not like I didn’t mess up all the measurements. I’m pretty sure this isn’t what they meant by ‘cup’.” He holds up the cat mug and Seungsik smiles slightly.

“That’s probably true. Still, I should’ve known. I was so focused on looking up the actual terms in the recipe, I didn’t think about the ingredients.” He pouts, attempting to not let the fact that Subin is holding his chin very gently get to him. He’s obviously already failed that with how warm his face feels, but he tries anyway.

“Wait, what? When did you look things up for this?” Subin asks, surprised.

Seungsik goes even redder. He didn’t mean to blurt that out. He blames Subin’s hand for muddling his thoughts. “Ah, well. Yesterday.” He sputters. He can’t fathom why Subin is still holding onto his face ever so gently, but he doesn’t really want to question it in case that stops him.

“You spent your free Saturday doing baking research?” Subin laughs incredulously. “Why?”

“So I could actually help you.” Seungsik feels himself pout again.

“That’s sweet.” Subin smiles softly and Seungsik swallows hard. That must’ve been noticeably felt by Subin, because he quickly lets go of his chin and straightens himself out a bit. If Seungsik wasn’t so out of it he would’ve noticed the soft pink on Subin’s cheeks. “Right, so. How do we fix this.”

“Fix?” Seungsik says hazily. He doesn't quite recall what they were talking about.

“Yeah, uh, this.” Subin gestures awkwardly at their failed contraption and Seungsik blinks a few times before finally catching on.

“Oh! Right. My best guess is we add another egg yolk.” He suggests hastily. “Since it’s our only wet ingredient, unless you count the butter, and well, this is definitely too dry.”

“That.. actually sounds smart.” Subin agrees and he brings out another egg. Seungsik is surprised he even has any left, with the entire bowl full of eggs with broken yolks sitting over by the sink.

They add the yolk, and Seungsik decides to just mix it all in by hand, since he kind of dropped the whisks for the mixer into the sink when he thought he was done with them. Eventually, after a lot of kneading, it starts to actually come together a bit better, and after several minutes it even resembles actual dough.

They divide it into two halves, and put them in the freezer to ‘rest’ as the recipe says. Whatever that means. Seungsik digs around in cupboards in search of some dish soap and a scrubber while Subin attempts to get rid of all traces of flour on his counter. And floor. And ceiling, apparently.

Seungsik diligently starts on the dishes, even though Subin tells him he can do them once they’re done with the baking. He says it’s because it’s more efficient this way, but really he needs an excuse to not look Subin in the eye after whatever their earlier interaction was supposed to be. He’s been holding himself together considerably well, but he’s starting to realize he’s a bit too affected by everything Subin does.

He scrubs fiercely at the bowls until no flour or butter is left on anything, as he thinks over what this means. Clearly he has developed a bit of a crush. That’s fine, it’s nothing he can’t get over. He just doesn’t know if he wants to get over it. It has been a while since he’s dated anyone.. But then there’s the fact that they work together. Their workplace doesn’t have any rules around colleagues dating, as long as it doesn’t get in the way of work. He supposes there should be no objections there, even if it doesn't work out. He knows how to separate his professional life from his personal, and Subin seems more than capable of that too.

That is, if Subin would even want to date him, of course. He glances over at Subin, who’s drying things as though his life depends on it and shakes his head. There’s no way he would. He's only seen Seungsik in full workaholic mode, staying behind until everyone else is gone and then some. Someone who doesn't even join his workers for lunch. Someone who is very much not fun. No, there's no way Subin, bright, fun and charming Subin, would fall for someone like that. Seungsik will just have to get over it. 

He tells himself that, at least five times, until all the dishes have been cleaned. But then he turns back to Subin, who has a small smile on his face, and he just feels his knees buckle. How will he ever survive? He realizes he’s staring and quickly turns back to the completely clean sink. “Uh, what should we do while we wait?” He asks, thrumming nervously on the side of the sink.

“Let’s sit down, at least. I’m tired from all the standing.” Subin makes his way over to the couch and Seungsik follows, only now noticing the buzzing in his legs.

They sit down, and it’s quiet for a while. Not a comfortable silence, more a silence that weighs on Seungsik like a heavy blanket. He doesn’t know what to say, and seemingly neither does Subin. They just sit there. Eventually Subin asks if he wants some tea or coffee, and he goes to make some coffee for the both of them.

It kills some time, and the buzz of the coffee machine is a welcome noise in the suffocating silence, but it doesn’t take long before Subin is sitting next to him again. He opens his mouth to say something, anything, but before he can think of anything to say Subin beats him to it.

“I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable earlier.” He’s not meeting Seungsik’s eyes, instead focusing on the cup of coffee that’s warming his hands. “I don’t know what came over me, but I shouldn’t have done that.”

Seungsik frowns. He tries to recall if he felt uncomfortable at any point during the day, but he really can’t think of any moment. Did he miss something? “I’m sorry, but when did that happen?”

“When I grabbed your chin, I mean that was totally inappropriate. We don’t even know each other that well. I got too comfortable.” Subin looks up and Seungsik’s heart clenches, because he looks _so sad_ and also because he just admitted to feeling comfortable around him. That’s new.

“Oh. I think I got too comfortable too, then, because it really didn’t bother me.” He feels a blush creeping up his neck. _I liked it_ is what he wants to say, but he doesn’t.

“Really? But you-” Subin stops himself and Seungsik frowns.

“I what?”

“No nevermind.” Subin says hastily before getting up and heading over to the kitchen with his cup of coffee. “It’s been an hour. We can make cookies.”

Seungsik’s frown deepens, but he decides not to question him; he doesn’t want to ruin the mood again. “Alright.”

They get the dough out of the fridge and plop it back onto the counter. It’s cold now, but still moldeable. Seungsik attempts to flatten the two balls of dough as much as he can with his hands, while Subin tries to find some suitable knives to cut the shapes with. Seungsik remembers to preheat the oven, as he had written in his notes the day before.

There's still some parts that feel a little too buttery, but overall the consistency isn't bad and it's easy enough to cut. "What shapes are we thinking?" He asks, brandishing his knife, ready to cut.

"Christmas shapes? For the holidays?" Subin suggests, already cutting a straight line on his part.

"Like trees?" Seungsik wonders if he could even manage to make something that halfway represents a tree, but he'll try if that's what Subin wants.

"Yeah, or stars, or maybe bells." He shrugs. "Go nuts."

"Nuts? I can shape it like peanuts maybe, or do you prefer cashews?" Seungsik teases as he starts on the first line of what's supposed to become a tree.

"Please don't." Subin grimaces. Then he proudly points at his first cookie. "Look! It's a tree."

Seungsik hums in approval; he has to admit it's a good looking tree. But then Subin tries to lift it to put it on the baking tray, but it sticks to the counter like glue so all he gets to life are two tips, the rest of the tree sadly left behind.

"Well, it was a tree." He says dejectedly and Seungsik suppresses a snort.

"Oh I know what we forgot! The flour." He remembers seeing the bakers on the show he watched use flour to make sure none of their doughs would stick to the workspaces. "You're supposed to put flour on the counter."

They attempt to get all the dough, that is securely stuck in place, off the counter. Once they finally manage to get most of it, Seungsik quickly cleans up the remaining bits and Subin throws some flour around until most of the counter is covered.

They spread their doughs out and try again. This time Subin does manage to get his full tree into the baking tray, and Seungsik feels like things might actually work out. His trees don't nearly look as nice as Subin's, but they're recognizable enough as trees. He decides to go for some different shapes next.

"Woah that star looks nice!" Subin points to one of Seungsik's attempts at Christmas trees and Seungsik giggles.

"It's a tree, but thanks. I guess it works better as a star." He pats his unbaked cookie affectionately.

"Oh… These are supposed to be trees?" Subin pokes at one of the cookies.

"Hey!" Seungsik says indignantly before he spots the mischievous smile on his face. He'll get him for that.

He grabs a tiny piece of dough and rolls it into a ball, before chucking it at Subin. It hits him in the jaw, with a soft slap sound, and then it sticks there for a moment, before sliding down onto his shoulder.

He gasps and turns to Seungsik wide-eyed, as Seungsik bursts into laughter. "Oh it's war." He hisses wickedly and he jumps over to his own pile of dough while Seungsik scrambles for cover. The piece of dough finds a wall instead and sticks to it.

They end up hurling pieces of dough, handfuls of flower and eventually even an egg (who threw that is unclear as they both just grabbed whatever was in reach) at each other until there's more dough on the floor, counter and ceiling than there is on the baking tray.

Somewhere in this process Seungsik finds himself in Subin's arms, who is giggling hysterically and attempting to wrestle another egg out of his hands, when he suddenly realizes their proximity and quickly straightens himself out of Subin's grip, effectively giving Subin the egg. He coughs and looks around for something to distract the other with, while his brain attempts to catch up with what just happened.

"We should uh, maybe put some more cookies in the baking tray, if we want to feed everyone Friday." He stutters, stumbling over his words.

Subin stops laughing and nods. He looks like there's something he wants to say, but then he simply walks back to his spot at the counter and puts the egg away, before focusing back on his dough like nothing happened.

Maybe nothing did. Maybe Seungsik had imagined it all, the way their eyes met and Subin’s had softened. One thing's for sure; he got too carried away. Again.

They work on their doughs again, occasionally commenting on the other's shapes, until they run out. There are many shapes on the tray, and some of them actually look a bit Christmassy. Subin beams proudly at their work and Seungsik almost reaches out to pinch his cheeks affectionately. They put the tray in the oven and set a timer for 15 minutes.

Luckily that’s not long enough for any more awkward tea pauses, but it isn’t long enough to fully clean up the mess they made either. The timer rings while Subin is, yet again, cleaning the ceiling so Seungsik quickly goes to turn it off and take the cookies out. He loses it once he sees them.

“What’s so funny?” Subin asks with a grunt as he attempts to wipe away the sticky dough. Seungsik attempts to stifle his laughter, in vain, and eventually Subin climbs down to see. He joins in on the laughter instantly.

Most of the cookies, that were supposed to be trees and stars, have sort of molten together to form several mega cookies, that are a little bit pointy. Apparently they made too many for one tray. Only a few of the bells survived, although a bit squished into the corners.

“Ahh such a shame of your pretty trees.” Seungsik says once they’ve calmed down a bit.

“I think it looks better like this.” Subin giggles. He prepares to remove the cookies from the tray, but Seungsik remembers they’re supposed to cool down first.

“Wait let them cool. Otherwise they break.” He puts his hand on Subin’s arm to stop him, and then immediately retracts it, quickly turning back to the cookies, his face burning. “Not that it matters much at this point.” He pokes sullenly at one of the big lumps and then hisses.

“Did you just burn yourself?” Subin chuckles, but then swiftly grabs his hand to inspect it. Seungsik freezes in place as he looks at his finger from all sides. “Doesn’t look too bad, but let’s cool it to be sure.”

He drags him over to the sink and checks the temperature of the water, before forcing Seungsik’s finger under it. The cold water brings him back to his senses and he quickly averts his eyes, before Subin realizes he’s been staring at him the entire time. “Thanks.” He mumbles.

“No worries, just be more careful next time.” Subin says gleefully.

“Next time?” Seungsik asks with a wince.

“Do you not want to bake cookies with me anymore?” He looks back up and finds Subin actually _pouting_. He feels his resolve crumble instantly and wonders just how much he would do to keep Subin happy.

“Of course I do!” He quickly says, hoping to placate the other.

“Good, because we have to practice to get better for next year.” Subin smiles instantly. _Anything_ , Seungsik concludes, he would do anything.

“If this doesn’t poison everyone, because then there won’t be a next year.” Seungsik frowns at the cookies. “Or if it scares them off.”

Subin looks over at the cookies. “If they don’t taste awful we can still salvage them.” He says, doubtfully.

“Well, only one way to find out.” Seungsik smiles and pulls his hand away. Luckily Subin lets him, because he doesn’t think he could stand there so close to him for another minute. He feels warm all over. Subin turns the tap off and joins him in attempting to break pieces off the cookies.

Fortunately, the cookies cooled quite quickly. Unfortunately, the cooling process seemingly turned them into rocks. Once he finally manages to break a piece off, Seungsik tentatively nibbles at it. He immediately spits it out, grimacing. “It tastes like dried clay.”

Subin, undeterred, takes a nibble from his piece, and then grimaces while attempting to chew it. “Oh you’re right. That’s awful.” He throws the piece back into the tray and frowns. “No cookies for the office party.”

“We did our best. I think it went pretty well for a first try. We didn’t burn the kitchen down.” Seungsik attempts to cheer him up a bit.

“We did get it covered in dough.” Subin looks up at where he had previously attempted to clean the ceiling. It’s mostly clean, but some pieces of dough still stubbornly stick to it.

“Yeah, that we did.” Seungsik can’t help but snicker a bit at Subin’s forlorn expression. “Come, I’ll help you clean up.

At first Subin protests that he took up enough of Seungsik’s precious free time already, but after realizing that Seungsik isn’t going to relent, and that he really doesn’t want to clean up alone, he gives up and they start cleaning together.

It takes a while, but they get the kitchen sparkling clean. The cookies go into the trash, because they really can’t afford to put their friends in the hospital right before Christmas. Seungsik kind of regrets trying so hard to get the kitchen clean fast, because now he doesn’t have an excuse to stay anymore. It truly is late, already nearing dinner time, and Subin shoos him out of the apartment to go spend the last bits of his free time relaxing.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, then.” He says softly, his mood brightening at the smile that breaks out on Subin’s face.

“Yes, see you tomorrow. Have a nice evening.” Seungsik feels like he should say or do something else, but he can’t tell what, so he just nods and turns to walk away, a bit of an empty feeling in his stomach. “Oh and Seungsik?”

He turns around, surprised, and sees the door open again and Subin’s head pop out. “Yes?” He asks, puzzled.

“Thank you for today.” Subin smiles brightly and for a moment Seungsik forgets to breathe.

“Ah, it’s nothing really.” He stutters. “I had fun.”

“Good. I’m glad.”

They stand there for a moment longer, simply smiling, before Seungsik realizes that he’s being weird again. “I’ll be going then.” He says, awkwardly pointing to the door that leads to the elevators.

“Oh, yes, bye.” Subin says gives him one last wave, that Seungsik answers with one of his own, before closing the door.

He sighs and starts on his walk back home. It's already dark out, the winter settling in. He wonders if it'll snow soon. Does Subin like snow? He should ask him.

He spends the rest of the walk wondering about what Subin likes and dislikes, what he does in his free time (clearly not baking) and other things that pop up in his mind. Only once he's home does he realize what he's doing.

He groans and drops himself onto the couch like a limp sack of potatoes. He's got a bad crush, but can he really be blamed when Subin's smile makes fireworks seem dim? And when his laugh sounds like a fairy's? And when- he shakes himself out of this thought process.

It's just infatuation, he tells himself, _I'll get over it_. With that he gets up and goes to the kitchen to scour for food. He attempts to ignore the small voice in his head that wonders what Subin likes to eat and whether or not he's already eaten, in vain. He almost grabs his phone to text him and make sure he's eating well, when he realizes that would be strange.

Instead, he makes himself some soup and settles on the couch to watch tv. Hopefully that'll distract him enough. But then a rerun of the latest episode of the drama he and Subin spent an hour talking about comes on and he loses that hope.

He quickly turns the tv off and grabs his laptop, opting to check some emails and maybe play some games if he feels up for it. Unfortunately, that's when he notices the 5 emails he got from Seungwoo, and in a panic he checks his phone to find 13 missed calls. He forgot he had his phone on silent all day, but then again he really wasn't expecting any calls on a Sunday.

He quickly scans through the emails and then calls Seungwoo back to run through it with him. Apparently there's been a mistake with one of their project and now he has to fix it. Preferably by Monday, which happens to be in a few hours. Seungwoo apologizes for asking this of him about a million times but he waves his concerns away.

"I'll get it done, I promise." He tries to not let the exhaustion seep into his voice too much.

"Thank you. You're a lifesaver." Seungwoo doesn't manage to keep the tiredness out of his voice and Seungsik wonders if he's been working all weekend again.

"Get some rest, please. I'll speak to you tomorrow." He says softly.

"Yeah, see you tomorrow." Seungwoo's yawn cuts off as he hangs up.

Seungsik sighs and gets to work. It ends up taking the rest of his evening, but at least it does distract him. It also exhausts him enough for sleep to not be a problem; he's out before his head even hits the pillow and he wakes up the next day with little recollection of even getting to his bed in the first place.

Dead tired, he makes his way to work. He somehow still arrives earlier than most of the others, and he pops by the lunch room for a cup of coffee. That's a mistake, because Sejun and Chan immediately jump him.

"Good morning sleepy head! Have you thought of what to bring to the party yet?" Sejun wraps an arm around his shoulders and Chan does the same from the other side, nearly knocking him to the ground.

"Uhh, not yet no." Seungsik admits, honestly having forgotten to even think about what he should bring. He has been far too busy helping Subin out.

"Then, how about you and Subin do the drinks?" Chan pipes up.

"Wasn't Subin bringing cookies?" Sejun asks and Seungsik grimaces at the memory of the rock hard 'cookies'.

"He texted me yesterday to say he couldn't make it, too little time." Chan shrugs. "So I figured our Seungsikie could band together with him and get the drinks!"

"Sounds great, we'll get the drinks. Now if you'll excuse me." He slips out from under their arms and quickly grabs his coffee, before making his way over to his office. He doesn't look back to see the puzzled expressions on both their faces.

This is fine. They'll just have to go to the grocery store. Together. At least it in no way can count as a date. That thought shouldn't make him feel sad. Oh dear. He attempts to calm himself down by diving into work, but before he can fully get settled into it a soft knock sounds from his door.

He looks up and of course it's Subin, standing there with a soft smile on his face. Seungsik signals for him to come in, while stuffing all his panic safely in the back of his mind, ready to be unleashed as soon as Subin has left again.

"Hey." He says as he sits down.

"Hi. What can I help you with?" Ok. Maybe not all the panic. Does he have to sound like he's working in customer service?

"Oh Chan and Sejun just told me we're getting drinks together?" Seungsik nearly chokes, but he masks it by quickly taking a sip of his coffee. Like a normal person. He hopes.

"They what?" He asks, dumbfounded.

"They said you already agreed?" Subin looks surprised. "They told me you said we could buy the drinks together, but if you don't want to then I'll tell them" He looks sad at this.

"Oh! No of course I want to!" Seungsik says hastily. "I did agree to that, I just,, uh, forgot I suppose."

"Strange.." Subin squints at him for a moment, before breaking out into a wide smile. "But great! I was thinking Thursday, after work?"

"Yeah, sounds good." Seungsik says, relieved Subin isn't questioning him further.

"Okay, see yah." He hops up off his chair and skips out of the office and for a moment Seungsik pictures a bunny in his place. _Cute_.

A few hours later he drops his head on the desk with a groan. How is he supposed to focus on work when he has vision on Subin the whole day? He keeps finding himself glancing up only to get lost in the cute little frown on Subin’s face while he’s focusing, or the animated look on his face when he’s in a discussion with one of the others, or his smile when-

He groans and wraps his hands around his head, trying to squeeze the thoughts out of his head. He has to focus, or he’ll be here until far too late tonight again.

“Are you sleeping?” A voice sounds and he shoots upright. He never heard Seungwoo walk in.

“No.” He says guiltily. “I was just trying to get myself to focus.”

“By not looking at anything?” Seungwoo sits down in front of him, and it feels strange, having him sit at his desk instead of the other way around.

“What do you want?” He grumbles as he straightens himself out.

“To know what’s up. I walked by and saw you faceplanting your desk. At first I figured you’d get up but then you put your hands around your head and you looked like you were in pain.” There’s a tone to his voice that tells Seungsik that he won’t take an ‘I’m fine’ or any other excuse.

“I just keep getting distracted. But it’s fine I’ll get over it. I’m not sick or in pain or anything like that.” He knows it’s not enough, he sees it in the way Seungwoo raises his eyebrows, before he even says anything. He mentally prepares himself for what’s next.

“What’s distracting you?” Seungwoo asks nosily. Seungsik knows he’s just being a concerned friend more than anything, and in any other scenario he would’ve told him immediately of his crush, but things are a little more complicated now.

“More like who. And right now the answer is you.” He says pointedly.

“Okay, okay I get it you don’t want to say.” Seungwoo smiles slightly. “I’m here if you want to talk about it at any point, though.”

“Thanks. Now get back to work so I can too.” Seungsik smiles back.

“Yes sir.” Seungwoo teasingly salutes before dashing out of his office.

He actually manages to focus better after that, Seungwoo’s interruption cleared his mind a bit, although he was a bit too nosy. Seungsik loves having such good friends around, but sometimes they can be a bit too perceptive. Seungwoo proves that again the next day, when he catches him staring out his office window dreamily.

“Earth to Seungsik?” He waves a hand in front of his face and Seungsik jumps.

“Oh, hey. I was just uh, in thought.” He feels his ears grow warm and hopes fervently Seungwoo doesn’t check to see what he was looking at.

“Yeah I noticed. I just came by to drop this off.” He drops a stack of papers on his desk. “These are for next week so you might want to stash them somewhere until then.” He has a smile on his face that Seungsik doesn’t quite like. It looks too mischievous.

“Thanks, will do.” He squints at him suspiciously as he turns around to head back out of the office.

“Oh and Seungsik?” He says, catching the door right before it’s fully closed.

“Yes?” Seungsik is still squinting at him.

“You can just ask him out, you know. It worked for me and Seungyoun, remember?” He winks before letting the door close fully. Seungsik can just about hear his cackle as he stares at the door, dumbfounded.

So he did notice. Oh dear. He buries his head in his hands and laughs in defeat. So he’s _that_ obvious. He really needs to get a grip on himself by Friday or he’ll never hear the end of it. At least Seungwoo only occasionally teases and never in front of Subin, Seungsik discovers. The others, especially Sejun, wouldn’t be so forgiving.

‘Just ask him out’ as if it’s that easy. For Seungwoo and Seungyoun yes, because everyone could tell immediately that they were both into each other. But he hasn’t known Subin for that long yet, and he has no idea what he thinks of him. _I got too comfortable_ Subin’s voice echoes in his head. He shakes the thought away. Yes he feels comfortable around Seungsik. That doesn’t mean he’s into him. That just means they’re friends now.

He realizes he’s been scowling at his door for several minutes now. For once he wishes his office wall and door weren’t made of glass. He knows he could pull down the blinds, but in the entire year he’s had this office he’s never done that, so the others would immediately know something’s up.

He forces himself to at least stare at his laptop, if he has to zone out and stare at anything he might as well pretend it’s an annoying client. That works remarkably well, because his eyes automatically start reading the words in front of him and before he knows it he’s nose deep in work again.

The following day passes in a similar fashion; occasionally he zones out, Seungwoo comes in to tease him about his crush before dashing away again, laughing manically, and Seungsik focuses back on his work. He has to stay quite late again because of this, but that’s no different from usual. But then it’s Thursday. And on Thursday he can’t afford to stay late, because he’ll keep Subin waiting. Because they’re going to buy drinks. Together.

He hasn’t slept much last night, partly because of nerves and partly because he stayed up too late to try and do some extra work. The only reason he manages to get through without slacking off, or dozing off, is by drinking 7 coffees and counting. Byungchan comes by at one point to tell him they’re now all out of coffee, so he might want to savour the one he’s drinking right now. He looks at his already empty cup and nods bleakly. There’s still a few hours left to go.

Somehow, by pure willpower, he manages to get through those hours, and by the time Subin knocks on his door he’s sent out the last emails for the day. He only has a few documents to sign, which he does a bit too hastily, but the signatures are there so it’s fine, he reckons.

“Alright, let’s get going.” He says cheerfully and he follows Subin out of his office.

“What kind of drinks should we get?” He wonders as they walk down towards the parking lot. “I don’t know what everyone likes.”

“You can never go wrong with some soju and beer. Oh and some soda options for the designated driver.” He grimaces. “That usually ends up being me.”

Subin chuckles. “How come?”

“We tend to go for rock paper scissors, which I always end up losing…” He says sullenly, remembering all the times he’s had to drive his drunk coworkers home.

“Well, you’re in luck this time. I don’t really drink, so I can be the designated driver.” Subin smiles widely at him.

“You don’t know what you’d be signing up for.” Seungsik smiles back ruefully.

“I thought we’d go easy on the drinks?” He asks as Seungsik unlocks his car and they get in.

“Yeah and I don’t trust anyone to stick to that.” Subin giggles at that and Seungsik smiles softly. He’ll find out on Friday.

“We can do it together then.” Subin says after they’ve driven for a bit.

“If you insist. It won’t be fun, I promise.” Seungsik shrugs. Subin mumbles something that he doesn’t quite catch. “What was that?”

“We’re here.” Subin says, which is definitely not the answer to Seungsik’s question, because what he said earlier was far longer, but he doesn’t question it.

He turns into the parking lot of the store and Subin jumps out, happily skipping towards the shopping charts. Seungsik giggles at how cute he’s being, which unfortunately does not go unnoticed. Subin raises his eyebrows as he rolls up with a shopping chart.

“What?” He pouts and Seungsik momentarily loses his train of thought.

“Cute.” He blurts out and then quickly starts for the store before Subin can process what he said.

He hears Subin follow him silently and wonders if he’s just made things awkward between them. He doesn’t dare to look back at first but then the silence lasts too long and he finds himself looking back anyway, only to find Subin browsing the shelves like nothing happened. He lets out a relieved breath.

“What kind of drinks do you like?” He asks once they’ve reached the drinks aisle, finally having a chance to ask him without being suspicious.

“Iced teas are nice, but sodas are too, I’m not fussy.” Subin shrugs as he looks through all the options.

“Maybe coke? Everyone likes coke.” He grabs two bottles and puts them in their chart at the same time as Subin loads two packs of peach flavoured iced tea in. “Oh, I love peaches.”

“Peaches are great.” Subin says matter of factly. “They suit you.”

Before he can ask what that’s supposed to mean Subin is already pushing the chart on to the next aisle for the booze and he’s left standing there, baffled. What does he mean they suit him? Does he know about his extensive peach shaped item collection? Did he notice him staring at his peach cup?

“Seungsik?” He’s startled out of his thoughts by Subin calling from the next aisle.

“Ah yes.” He quickly rounds the corner and helps Subin load up several cases of beer and soju. He also picks out a bottle of wine he knows is not too expensive but still appreciated by the wine lovers in their office.

“That’s a lot.” Subin grimaces at their chart.

“Good thing we’re splitting costs.” Seungsik frowns. “I don’t know how I ever would have paid for all this alone.”

“Good thing we failed the cookies.” Subin says, but it doesn’t sound like he means it at all. In fact he looks downright sad. Suddenly Seungsik gets an idea.

“Wait here.” He says before speeding off to a few aisles back, not even waiting for Subin’s answer. He quickly finds what he’s looking for and grabs a pack, before heading back to Subin.

“What was that about.” He asks, still standing in the same spot and looking confused.

“You have eggs and uhh,” He quickly checks the pack behind his back, “butter at home right?”

“Yeah.. why?” Subin squints at him. “What are you planning?”

Seungsik reveals his hands and their content, knowing he can’t keep it a secret for long anyway as they’re checking out together. “Cookie mix!”

“What?” Subin laughs incredulously.

“This is easy! You just add the eggs and butter and it’s done! Even we can’t fuck this up.” He says proudly.

“That.. You want to bake now?” Subin asks doubtfully, taking the pack from him.

“Well yeah, if we want to have them done by tomorrow.” Seungsik takes it back and pops it into the chart. “Let’s get going we have baking to do.”

“But what about your free time? You don’t have to do this for me.” Subin says, but he looks excited and hopeful.

 _I would do anything for you._ No that’s not appropriate. “It’s fine it’ll be fun! But maybe we should hold off the dough fight, to avoid clean up.” Seungsik pushes the chart towards the cash registers, followed by a giggling Subin.

“Yeah, maybe.” He agrees and Seungsik smiles fondly.

They divide the costs, but Subin insists on buying the cookie mix, since it was his offer in the first place to make cookies. Seungsik wants to buy it to make up for ruining his cookies last time, but Subin doesn’t think it’s fair to only blame him for that, so he ends up buying it anyway.

They head over to Subin’s house, and Seungsik wonders briefly why he was even nervous in the first place. Being with Subin seems to put him at ease; he feels more relaxed and excited than he has in a while, somehow at the same time. They chat about everything and nothing until they’re safely in Subin’s warm home.

“Alright let’s get started then.” He says as he gets out some cups and iced tea from the fridge and only _now_ Seungsik realizes that he already knew Subin likes iced tea, specifically the peach one, because they had it last time as well.

He mentally slaps himself, but accepts the drink with a smile. “Thanks.”

Subin gets out the butter and eggs and Seungsik has a weird sense of déjà vu. He kind of wants to ask Subin to sit on the couch with him and chat about their favourite drama all over again, but there are cookies to bake, so he picks up the box of mix from the counter and reads the instructions.

“It says to warm the butter. Oh 225 grams of it.” He frowns and looks up at Subin. “We didn’t warm the butter last time.”

“Maybe that’s what went wrong.” Subin carefully weighs the butter and then places it in the microwave. “Let’s not mess that up again.”

“Don’t warm it too much, though, it says it just has to be soft, so I guess not liquid.” Seungsik warns.

“Okay I’ll do 10 seconds and see how it looks.”

10 seconds turns out to already melt a small part of the butter, but Seungsik supposes that’s better than working with too hot or too cold butter, so they go with it. They combine all the ingredients and carefully knead it together with their hands, and this time it actually immediately looks like cookie dough.

“This should work.” Seungsik says, carefully optimistic.

They shape their little trees and stars and bells again, or well, attempt.

“Hey I think you got better at it.” Subin points at one of Seungsik’s trees. “That one actually looks like a tree.”

“Thanks.” He says proudly. He feels a surge of warmth at the compliment. “Yours are great, just like last time.”

“Hehe thank you.” Subin giggles and Seungsik melts again. He wonders if he’ll ever stop having that effect on him.

They pop the cookies into the oven, properly spaced apart this time, and set a timer for 15 minutes. The clean up takes far less time than last time, mostly because of the lack of mess they made, but also because they needed to use fewer equipment.

“There, all done.” Subin puts away the mixer and smiles as he looks around his clean kitchen.

“The cookies are almost done.” Seungsik stares at them through the glass of the oven. They expanded a bit, but none of them are touching and they kept their shape really well. “They look great.”

“We should taste one to be sure.”

“Just admit you want to snack.” Seungsik chuckles at the blush that crawls up on Subin’s face.

“Well of course I do; it’s dinner time.” He defends himself and right then Seungsik’s stomach growls.

“Ah, you’re right.” He pouts at the sudden empty feeling in his stomach.

“You should get home then, don’t let me keep you from dinner.” Subin says sadly.

“No it’s fine, I want to at least taste.” Seungsik says, but then he wonders if he’s imposing. “Unless you’d rather I leave.” He adds hastily, not wanting to be rude.

“No, I don’t. I’d like it if you stayed.” Subin smiles reassuringly. “I just don’t want you to feel obliged to stay.”

“Then I’ll stay a bit longer.” Seungsik smiles back, and right then the timer rings.

“Cookies!” Subin says enthusiastically and he tackles the oven with his oven mittens. Seungsik watches, thoroughly amused, as he struggles to take the oven tray out without dropping the cookies.

“Ah they smell so good.” He stands next to Subin to admire their hard work.

“They look good too.” Subin says happily and Seungsik looks over to see the soft smile on his face. He’s glad he came up with this plan, even if it did take away from his free evening. He doesn’t think he would’ve been as happy spending the time at home anyway.

“We should let them cool properly this time.” He says sheepishly and Subin giggles again.

“Yes, spare your fingers.” He says, gently patting Seungsik’s hand that’s resting on the counter.

“I kind of need them, don't I.” Seungsik attempts to keep his voice at a normal volume and pitch.

“Yeah.” Subin chuckles and goes to refill their glasses. “How long should we wait?”

“They’re small and thin so probably not very long.” Seungsik shrugs and then mentally berates himself for not saying ‘at least an hour’ to have an excuse to stay longer.

“Okay.” Subin says cheerfully before sipping his drink. He seems so excited to try the cookies Seungsik suddenly wishes they would cool faster so he could have as many as he wants.

They sip their drinks quietly, both of them tired and hungry from work and shopping. Seungsik feels as though his legs are jelly and he wants nothing more than to just lay down, but if he sits down he might actually fall asleep, so he stays where he is, stubbornly staring at the cookies as if that’ll cool them down faster.

After about 5 minutes he’s had enough and he carefully pokes one of the cookies with his finger. It’s not hot anymore, but also not cold. “We can try them but the rest has to cool down more before you store them.”

“Yay cookie!” Subin jumps up from where he apparently sat down on the counter and hops over.

Seungsik picks up one of the less nice looking stars and breaks it in half for them to share. They tentatively take a nibble at the same time and then a bigger bite as they realize the cookies actually taste good. Seungsik practically shoves the entire thing in his mouth and then mumbles “this is really good” to which Subin hums in agreement.

Once they’ve finished their cookie, he looks over at the rest of the cookies and raises an eyebrow. “Technically speaking I did tell the others there would be no cookies. They wouldn’t even know.”

Seungsik frowns, confused for a moment, before he realizes what he means. “We are not eating cookies for dinner.” He says, aghast.

“Okay, fine.” Subin sulks but the corners of his mouth pull up into a smile.

“Good. Now I’ll head off, but there’d better be cookies tomorrow at the party.” Seungsik says strictly and Subin giggles.

“Yes, yes there will be. I’ll cook myself a decent dinner.” He reassures him.

“Good.” He punctuates the word with a nod. “I will too.”

“I’m glad.” Subin smiles and follows him to the door. “Get home safe.”

“Will do.” Seungsik says as brightly as he can while putting on his jacket. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Don’t forget the cookies.”

“Don’t worry about those, you just worry about the drinks.” Subin pats his shoulder in a way that he thinks is supposed to be threatening, but it just makes him want to pull him in for a kiss.

“Yeah thanks.” He breathes out and then realizes that that is a very strange thing to say in this situation.

Subin simply giggles and shows him out, waving before closing the door, just like last time. Seungsik figures he has to be the least subtle person possible when it comes to his crush, but it seems like Subin hasn’t figured anything out yet. Thankfully. He sighs and makes his way home through the cold night, ordering takeaway along the way so it arrives about when he gets there.

He spends the rest of the night in a kind of daze, unable to really shake the good feelings of earlier despite having blundered his way through the evening. He sleeps soundly, which he is grateful for. He makes his way over to work, the drinks still in the trunk of his car, since they’d stay colder that way than if he had taken them inside. His fridge is nowhere near big enough to hold this much.

Neither are the company’s fridges, he discovers, after hauling all of the drinks upstairs. He’s the first at the company, because he needs to bring the drinks in and attend the early Friday meetings again. He decides they can leave part of the beer and soju out and refill the stock of the fridge as it depletes.

He gets through the meetings just fine, but the rest of the day crawls by uneventfully. Everyone is hard at work to get things done on time for the party, even Seungwoo doesn’t barge in unannounced, which makes him think he’s also trying his best to make it. Near the end of the day he occasionally looks up to find new decorations in the office, undoubtedly the work of Hanse. It looks good, he has to admit. The Christmas colours are subtly hidden between more neutral colours, creating a very pleasant atmosphere.

Finally, he finishes his work and shuts down his laptop for the day. He takes a deep breath to prepare himself for what’s coming and heads out into the other area, where the desks have been shoved together to form some sort of long table, on which Sejun and Chan are distributing various foods. Byungchan is busying himself with the plates and cutlery while Subin has the cups. The personal items from the desks are stacked (neatly, at first glance, but underneath it's a mess) in a corner.

Seungsik figures he’ll do the drinks the rest of the night, since he doesn’t trust any of them to get up after a bottle or two and still make it to the fridge, so he goes around asking what everyone wants and then brings that over. They all sit down and, to everyone but Seungsik’s surprise Seungwoo shows up and sits down as well. Seungsik had already put a bottle of soju next to his glass.

“Let us begin!” Sejun loudly announces before pouring his first glass of wine.

Seungsik looks over a Subin, who carefully takes out a lunch box from his bag and places it on the table.

“Subin now's not the time for lunch, it’s the time for snacks!” Byungchan says, a handful of crisps already on their way to his mouth.

“These are snacks.” Subin simply says, before opening the box and revealing the contents.

“I thought you weren’t bringing cookies?” Sejun immediately reaches to take one, but Subin swats his hand away.

“Patience.” He says and Sejun actually listens. “I know I said I couldn’t make it, but with Seungsik’s help I did. We baked them together.” He says proudly and the others coo at him

“Ahw, that’s so lovely. Couple baking.” Chan giggles and Seungsik coughs, his ears turning red.

“Alright, no cookies for Chan.” Subin says and passes the box along to Sejun instead, who happily takes one.

In the end everyone, including Chan, after some begging and pouting, gets several cookies, and they are all quick to compliment Subin’s excellent baking skills. Seungsik isn’t even upset, he feels like Subin deserves all the praise. Subin, however, is not so happy about it.

“Thank you, but I can’t take all the credit. Seungsik helped. A lot.” The small smile on his lips as he turns his head towards Seungsik does him in and he can’t help but smile back widely. He can feel all the other’s eyes on them and he knows how absolutely smitten he must look now. There go his attempts at subtlety.

“Thanks.” He says sincerely.

Thankfully, Seungwoo saves him. He raises his glass and clears his throat. “To Subin’s cookies!” Everyone laughs at Seungsik’s expense, including Seungsik. “And to happy holidays for everyone.”

“That’s it? That’s your toast?” Hanse protests loudly.

“I got all the essentials!” Seungwoo defends himself. “Can you do better?”

He really shouldn’t have asked that, because Hanse clears his throat and then launches into a long speech of how important this year has been to them and how much closer they have become, mocking every single team member one by one in the way only Hanse can. By the end of it they’ve all finished their first drinks and the laughter rings loud enough that someone from a different department sends someone else down to complain.

Of course they don’t quiet down. Instead, the night spirals out of control, with Sejun and Chan managing to break various items, including a vase, while arm wrestling on one of the desks, Seungwoo singing his heart out to music nobody but him seems to be able to hear, and Hanse drawing fake tattoos on everyone’s arms. By the end of the night everyone is, softly put, wasted, except for Seungsik and Subin.

“I suppose we should try to get them home.” Seungsik sighs as he attempts to hold a very drunk Seungwoo upright, who is shouting at Chan, who is completely ignoring him, instead leaning against Byungchan while they sing a trot song (or what is supposed to be one, Seungsik thinks).

“Yeah. How?” Subin looks around at the mess. “And how are we cleaning all this?”

“Don’t worry, Seungwoo will have hired someone to do the cleanup. He learned from the first office party.” Seungsik grimaces at the memory. “I would suggest we put away the food for people to eat later or take home, but it seems the goblins have finished everything.”

“That still leaves the first question unanswered.” Subin frowns, but then his face brightens. “Let’s give them some time to sober up a bit. Come.” He carefully guides Seungwoo away from him and onto a chair, before grabbing his hand and dragging him along.

“Where are we going?” Seungsik asks, while mentally trying to will his hand to not sweat.

“You’ll see.” Subin smiles and gets them into an elevator, pressing the top button once they’re inside.

“All the way up?” Seungsik frowns, confused.

“Yeah, have you never been there?”

“No.” He admits, trying to ignore the fact that Subin is still very much holding on to his hand.

“Strange. Chan showed me on my second day here.” Subin shrugs. “I guess he figured you already knew about it.”

“Probably. What is it? If I may ask?” Seungsik asks curiously.

“A surprise, then.” Subin giggles at Seungsik’s affronted expression.

“Fine.” He huffs and he nearly attempts to cross his arms, but he remembers in time that Subin is very much holding his hand and might not anymore if he pulls it away now.

They get to the top floor and Subin leads him through a few hallways and then a staircase even higher up, before they reach a door with a little numberpad. He puts in the code that apparently works, because the door opens and Seungsik gasps at the view.

“A rooftop garden?” He stares at Subin wide-eyed, and Subin nods.

“A rooftop garden. Isn’t it cute?” He drags him along through a whirl of plants and flowers to a set of benches at the other side.

“It’s lovely.” Seungsik says softly, looking around like a child in a candy store. The lovely colours and the fragrance of the flowers put his mind at ease and he sighs contently. “How did I never know we had this.”

“It’s not been here that long yet. Apparently Chan knows the person that got the permission to make this from the higher ups, who then told him how to get here in case they couldn’t take care of the plants and Chan had to.” Subin explains. “I figured he’d told all of you, at least Sejun knows.”

“Huh, maybe he mentioned it at some point but I really can’t remember.” Seungsik shrugs.

“I’m kind of glad for that.” Subin admits and Seungsik looks over, surprised. Subin is staring down at the floor.

“Why?”

“Now I get to show you, as a surprise.” He smiles down at the floor and Seungsik feels his heart stop.

“Oh.” Is all he manages.

“Uh,” Subin looks up at him, a determined look in his eyes, “I hope I’m not reading this wrong, but, well.” He takes a deep breath and Seungsik tries to remember how to breathe at all. “Earlier when Chan said that, about couple baking, well you didn’t deny it.”

“That-” Seungsik’s brain hurries to let him explain but Subin interrupts him.

“I didn’t either.” He says softly.

Seungsik thinks back at the moment and, well, Subin is right he didn’t deny anything. He really doesn’t know what to make of that.

“I thought maybe, next time, it could be true?” Subin asks and Seungsik’s brain shortcircuits.

“Like. We bake. As couples?” He stutters out, trying to wrap his ead around it all, and Subin’s face falls a bit.

“Yeah, unless you don’t want that. I thought-” He sounds so unsure.

“No! Yeah! I mean yes that- I would like that.” He stumbles over his words and his cheeks heat up, but then Subin smiles so widely and he feels all warm inside again and he decides none of his previous concerns matter, because Subin does want to date him and he’s not going to say no. He’s allowed to be a bit selfish for once.

“Really?” Subin asks, his eyes shining with hope. Seungsik squeezes his hand reassuringly.

“Really.” He says softly. “I really like you, I just never expected you to like me back.”

“For real? I thought I was being obvious enough.” Subin giggles. “I gave you all the hints.”

“What hints?” Seungsik tries to think of any, but he comes up with nothing.

“I mean, to be honest I figured you’d know instantly I was just using the baking as an excuse to get closer to you, and then I mean I held your chin, and then I worried I had gone too far but you said it was fine. We both said we were comfortable together and I figured well, that would be enough for now I’d just keep dropping hints, and I really thought you were getting them and hinting back. I even told you anything I do with you is fun.” Subin rambles.

“Oh. Is that what you said when we were in the car?” Seungsik’s smile widens impossibly.

“Yeah and then you called me cute so I figured you caught on, but the next thing I knew you were acting like nothing happened.” Subin frowns.

“That- that wasn’t me catching on that was just me being very obvious.” Seungsik blushes furiously and Subin laughs.

“So you seriously thought I didn’t like you back?” He asks, incredulously.

“Yeah.” Seungsik admits sheepishly. “I guess Seungwoo was right after all. All I had to do was ask you out, it’s that simple. He figured it out last Monday.”

“Everyone knew. I mean. They all told me I should just go for it, that there was no way you would say no.” Subin chuckles at Seungsik’s surprised expression. “You really aren’t as subtle as you think.”

“Can I disappear for a few weeks, maybe years?” He groans. Everyone already knew. How embarrassing. Here he was thinking he had fooled them all.

“No.” Subin says resolutely. “Not now that we’ve just started dating.”

Seungsik smiles. “I like the sound of that.”

“Me too.” Subin squeezes his hand.

They fall quiet and he leans his head on Seungsik’s shoulder as they look out over the garden, the night sky bright with sparkling stars above it. It’s a lovely evening, and Seungsik wishes it would never end, but they have several drunk friends to take home, so eventually they get up and make their way back down.

Somehow they manage to get everyone home in one piece, after several drives back and forth. Lastly, Seungsik drops Subin off at home.

“Goodnight.” Subin says, making no move to go inside.

“Goodnight.” Seungsik answers with a soft chuckle. They’re both still just standing in front of Subin’s apartment.

Then Subin sticks out his arms, inviting Seungsik in for a hug, and Seungsik is more than happy to comply. He pulls him close and presses a soft kiss on his head. “Goodnight Subinnie. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Our first date.” Subin mumbles into his shoulder.

“No baking though, we’ll save that for next year.” Seungsik feels him shake with the giggles that run through him.

“Yeah. Next year.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for making it all the way here! I hope the journey was fun :D kudos and comments appreciated <33 see you all at reveals ^^


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